“Painting is more about a way of not knowing, and of not knowing for as long as possible while still working. It’s not something to brag about. But it is very important to me and crucial, I think, to making good art.”
David Reed, artist/writer
I just read the quote this morning, and it felt very powerful to me and very appropriate. It is from an article by Reed which appeared in the September issue of Art in America. He is summing up what he learned from his mentor, the Abstract Expressionist painter Milton Resnick.
What felt so right to me was the idea “of not knowing for as long as possible.” Of remaining open to the process of painting itself and getting out of my own way and free from my own mind. To not over think. Just to paint. To feel lost, and then found, and then lost again until the painting itself tells me that its time to stop working and start looking at what I’ve done. And then pause until it’s time to get lost and found again.
I was so sure that I knew where I was heading after completing the paintings I did over the summer. Now I am not sure of anything. Even making the mandalas can be filled with a new sense of potential. On the edge, on the verge of “not knowing.” So delicious!!
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